Bread Upon The Waters : Acknowledgement

1945

People

(1896 - 1965) ~ Anarchist, Feminist Organizer and ILGWU Leader : ...an anarchist, feminist labor organizer and vise president within the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Born Rakhel Peisoty in Derazhnia, Ukraine in 1896 to a family of grain merchants, Pesotta was well educated during her childhood and, influenced by People's Will, would eventually adopt anarchist views. (From : Anarchy Archives.) • "In the brief span of its life, the IWW produced men who became internationally known and whose names were torches of inspiration in many lands. Most of them paid a high price for their fame, some with their lives." (From : "Bread Upon the Waters," by Rose Pesotta.) • "I had no ambition to hold executive authority. Valuing my own freedom, I wanted to avoid getting into harness, and to keep from becoming enmeshed in inner-circle politics. Too, I felt that I could serve the cause of my fellow-unionists just as effectively as a rank-and-file member. And it was my contention that the voice of a solitary woman on the General Executive Board would be a voice lost in the wilderness." (From : "Bread Upon the Waters," by Rose Pesotta.) • "Soon after the 1929 stock market crash 30,000 persons in that city were jobless. Some organized the Unemployed Citizens' League, which set the pace for similar self-help groups all over the United States. Harvesting fruit and vegetable crops on a sharing basis, it set up various co-operative enterprises, which, however, were opposed by business men, who feared these would cut into their profits." (From : "Bread Upon the Waters," by Rose Pesotta.)

WHEN I WENT BACK to work in
a dress factory early in 1942 I set out to write a book on my years afield
as a labor organizer. During that period I had accumulated a great mass
of memoranda÷letters, articles written for the labor press, leaflets, pamphlets,
copies of special publications used in organization drives, statistical
reports, diaries. I had the material and the urge, but soon realized that
I was not equal to the task before me.

Fortunately, at that stage, my friend John Nicholas Beffel came to my
aid. Though he has kept modestly in the background, claiming credit only
as editor on the title page, it was largely his collaboration that made
this book possible. Mere words cannot express my deep appreciation for
his energy and endurance, his ability to get at firstÄhand sources
of data, and his painstaking accuracy with regard to names, dates, and
historical facts.

In developing my narrative we had occasion to seek critical opinions
from various other friends and coworkers of mine in both the A F
of L and the CIO. The first draft was read to my advantage by McAlister
Coleman, Myriam Sieve Wohl, Helen Norton Starr, and Samuel H. Friedman.
Extensive portions of the manuscript also were scanned by four professors
of economics and labor problems÷ Drs. Theresa Wolfson, Amy Hewes, Harry
W. Laidler, and Broadus Mitchell÷whose suggestions were exceedingly helpful.
Thomas F. Burns, Powers Hapgood, and Frank Winn read some of the CIO chapters;
Elias Lieberman and Abraham Katovsky went over the Cleveland section; Sue
Adams and William J. Sheehan the California and Pacific Northwest parts;
Yvette Cadieux Blonin the Canada chapters; and Abraham Desser the pages
on Puerto Rico. Other portions were weighed, from the viewpoint of the
general reader, by Adelaide Schulkind, Lillian Weinberg, Fannie Breslaw,
Rae Brandstein, Ada Rose, Nat Weinberg, and Evelyn Casey. And Grace and
Morris Milgram thoughtfully paralleled our reading of the galley proofs.

Special thanks are due to all those named, for constructive criticism
and invaluable encouragement.

Because of wartime dislocations manuscript typists were at a premium.
Hence I am particularly indebted to four friends who assisted nobly on
that end÷Alicia Lloyd, Betty Flohr, Frances Davis, and Rita Herling Weissman.
They worked with us Sundays, holidays, and evenings, often after doing
a day's labor on their own jobs.